We see potential for Gopher Athletics to achieve greatness, but it will require investment in our development facilities, many of which are badly outdated, overcrowded and, in some cases, non-existent. Investing in these facilities will give Gopher student-athletes the best opportunity to achieve greatness in the classroom, in competition, and later in life.

Below, learn more about how we will create value for current and future Gophers, the University, and the entire state of Minnesota by investing in Gopher student-athletes and the facilities where they spend a majority of their time studying, practicing, working out and bonding as a team.

Our Nothing Short of Greatness campaign is entirely funded by private contributions. To support our effort to continue building greatness in Gopher Athletics, please click the “Donate Now” button at the top of the page and share information about the campaign with your fellow Gopher fans.

Used by all student-athletes, our new Center for Excellence – which will include our Academic Center, Leadership Center and Nutrition and Wellness Center – will have a significant impact on every current and future Gopher student-athlete.

Our new Academic Center will be larger than our current academic area but, more important than sheer size, it will be designed more functionally than our current space. It will feature work rooms, tutoring rooms and video production and technology labs that don’t exist in the current facility.

Our new Leadership Center will completely change how we prepare Gopher student-athletes to lead later in their lives by drastically expanding our current space, which is simply a handful of offices. It will include classrooms, training spaces and a board room for group presentations and guest speakers to enhance our life skills, career planning and leadership coaching programs.

Our new Nutrition and Wellness Center will provide approximately 19,000 gross square feet in one, central location for all student-athletes to eat, learn about healthy habit and bond with each other, a significant improvement over our current system of feeding student-athletes in improvised spaces across several facilities.

In addition to the Center for Excellence, modern practice centers for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball will free up space in existing buildings for Olympic sports, relieving congestion that often creates off-hour practice times and complicates student-athletes’ busy school schedules.

In the past few decades – at schools big and small, public and private – there are numerous examples of the “Flutie Effect,” the phenomenon of athletic success driving increased applications to a university. Greatness for Gopher Athletics could create the same impact for the University of Minnesota.

Athletic success isn’t the only way universities can achieve these positive effects but it may be one of the most effective.